Welcome to our two new Science Advisory Panel members, Professor Terryann Clark and Professor Harriet Hiscock. We are privileged to have them share their knowledge as part of A Better Start’s international Science Advisory Panel (SAP).
The SAP provides the Challenge with critical appraisal, guidance and global benchmarking for our research.
Get to know our new members below.
PROFESSOR TERRYANN CLARK
Terryann Clark (Ngāpuhi) is a registered comprehensive nurse with extensive experience in youth health, community health, sexual health, health promotion, youth mental health, and Māori health.
She works part-time as a Professor in the School of Nursing and is the Director of the Doctor of Health Science Programme (DHSc). She is a founding member of the Adolescent Health Research Group (AHRG) and was the principal investigator of the Youth’12 national youth health and wellbeing survey in secondary schools and co-lead of the Youth19 survey.
She recently led an HRC project exploring the influence of whanaungatanga on rangatahi Māori outcomes.
For publications and resources see www.youth19.ac.nz
PROFESSOR HARRIET HISCOCK
Professor Hiscock is a consultant paediatrician and National Health and Medical Research Council Practitioner Fellow based in Melbourne.
She is Associate Director of Research at the Centre for Community Child Health; Director of the Royal Children’s Hospital Health Services Research Unit; and Group Leader, Health Services at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute.
Her research focuses on developing, testing and implementing novel approaches to: (i) keep children out of hospital; (ii) reduce low value (wasteful) care; and (iii) integrate health, social and education services to improve health and wellbeing for children, including those living with family adversity.
She has published over 180 peer reviewed papers and been awarded continuous NHMRC funding since 2002, including a current CRE in Childhood Adversity and Mental Health, as CIA.
Professor Hiscock has a strong focus on translation beyond traditional methods, including her infant sleep e-learning package for professionals, MCRI sleep podcast (a sleep app designed to help parents manage common child behaviour problems), and rollout of her Infant Sleep programme to 1200 Victorian maternal and child health nurses, for which she was awarded the 2010 Early Years Minister’s Award for Partnerships with Families and Communities.
Her work informs content of the federal government-funded Raising Children Network Parenting site. She has co-authored a report which led to inclusion of a child mental health measure in the Victorian School Entry Health Questionnaire that enables earlier detection and management of child mental health problems.
